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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829714">every single thing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitter_Lisp/pseuds/Glitter_Lisp'>Glitter_Lisp</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>reboot [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Descendants (Disney Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Afterlife, Background Relationships, Gen, Grim Reaper Harry Hook, Grim Reaper Mal (Disney)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:22:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,784</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829714</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitter_Lisp/pseuds/Glitter_Lisp</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Three and a half months into his vacation with Uma, two weeks before his upcoming death, Mal offers Harry a deal.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Hook &amp; Mal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>reboot [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1509152</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>every single thing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I cannot express how much this story has been fighting me. The direct sequel to "reduce, reuse, resurrect" has a total of four sentences, but then this happened in the span of a few hours.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Unknown number: Come downstairs now.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry scrambled out of bed and hurried down the stairs the second he got Mal's text, as late as it was and as tired as he was. It was five in the morning, but he never slept as well when Uma wasn't there. Even worse, lately, when his vacation was up in two weeks and this was the first he'd heard from Mal in months. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was the first thing he saw when he got downstairs. She was standing next to one of the tables in the back of the bar, away from the windows, leaning against the wall and staring at the floor with her arms crossed. She looked tired, tired in a way Harry had never seen her. “Sit down and don't say anything,” she said, kicking a chair out and nodding towards it. “I'm getting through this in one go, because it's complicated and I don't want to repeat it if I don't have to. All right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry sat down and didn't say anything. Mal sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look,” she said, then stopped and looked conflicted. “Time is weird. You know that.” He nodded. “It's weird for everyone, but it's weirder for us, because it just barely exists. You get that? Time is… what it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry stared at her blankly, and Mal sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You're so young,” she said softly, expression somewhere between fond and heartbroken. “I don't have to explain this a lot. It's the sort of thing you usually figure out on your own.” She looked up at the ceiling, frowning as she thought it over. “Think of it… like a bowl. And the people in the middle– no, that doesn't make sense. Fire, then. Light. Okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held out one hand, palm up, and a tiny green flame was floating an inch above it. “Say this is time. This is where the world is. Life. Cycles of days and years and centuries. The world is old, Harry. Time was pretty thin when things started out, but the longer it stays, the stronger it gets. People were born. They aged. They </span>
  <em>
    <span>lived.</span>
  </em>
  <span> And they created rules and regulations for themselves, things that had to happen and in a certain order. Patterns, I guess, and they built time around them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait,” Harry interrupted. “Are you saying humans </span>
  <em>
    <span>invented time?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal frowned at him, but it looked less annoyed and more thoughtful. “That's one way of thinking of it, I guess. We were trying to understand the world before it was born. There had to be an order to it. Something had to make sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flame in her hand glowed a little brighter. “It's not a bad thing. But it meant that we gave time power that it didn't have before. Eating when you were hungry became mealtimes. Sleeping when you were tired became day and night.” She snorted. “Basically, the second someone came up with the idea of delayed gratification, that was it. If there was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>later,</span>
  </em>
  <span> that meant there was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span> and a </span>
  <em>
    <span>before</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Once people discovered the difference, everything changed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged. “I won't bore you with the rest. Evolution, civilization. The whole thing. But none of it would happen if people didn't find a difference between things that happened, things that are happening, and things that will happen. And the more differences they found, the more important it became.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flame in her hand burst into life, bright and crackling, casting strange shadows across her face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is time,” she said softly. “And humanity, right at the center of it. Wrapped in layers and layers of it, everything broken into hours and minutes and seconds, clocks on every wall. But us… we're not there anymore, are we?” She stretched her arms out, flame glowing bright in her right hand and casting the faintest flickers of green light on her left. “Time is everywhere. It still affects us; that's how vacations are possible. We're not outside of it. But we are on the outer edges.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flame disappeared. Harry hadn't realized just how bright it was until the room went suddenly dark again, a pale glowing after-image left burning behind his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We're not untouched by time,” Mal said. “But we're far enough from the center that we have a much better picture of it than anyone on earth is ever going to. We– no. Ugh, sorry, I'm trying to explain it to you. The important parts.” She huffed out a breath. “Vacation is four months every ten years.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry nodded. “Yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I told you our rules aren't arbitrary,” Mal said. “Which is true. But those amounts kind of are. It could be one month for two and a half years. It could be a week for seven months. It's a specific ratio for any time, but the actual amounts don't matter. One to twenty-nine,” she said when Harry opened his mouth. “That, we don't understand, and we've given up trying. It evens out to about a day of vacation for every month of work. And the reason we get that time…” Her face twisted into an expression he had never seen on her before, something cold and bitter. “What we do is not easy. And when you do it, you leave yourself in favor. You're owed a debt by time. Or god, or life and death, or the universe.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Whatever you choose to think of it as. The last ten years? You didn't owe that to anyone. You gave something you didn't have to. In our line of work, debts like that can't go unpaid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She paused expectantly and sighed when Harry only gave her a puzzled frown. “You gave something, so something was given back to you. It's a line of credit.” Her eyes bored into his. “It goes both ways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took him a moment to understand what she meant. When he did, his mouth went dry. “You… I could…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could stay,” Mal said quietly. “And you will lose yourself entirely if you do, because this ruins </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything. </span>
  </em>
  <span>But yeah. You could stay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As a human?” he asked hesitantly, and Mal shook her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can't bring you back to life; we're not that powerful. You'd be what you are now. Hell, we'll probably still need you to do jobs for us when you can. Call you a contractor. But the </span>
  <em>
    <span>time,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Harry. The debt. You remember what we told you when you started? About quitting?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whenever I want,” Harry said. “If it's too hard, you said, or I'm tired. I can leave.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal nodded. “If you do this, that option is gone. If you spend a year with her, a lifetime with her–”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have to stay,” Harry said hoarsely. “Once I come back, I can't leave.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not until you've paid it off,” Mal said, nodding. “No vacation. No breaks. You see countless people die. You see people join us and leave. You love, and you lose and lose and lose.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You've done it,” Harry realized. “All of you. More than once, right? That's why you're still here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal’s expression was grim. “We're old, Harry,” she said. “Remember that, if you forget everything else about the core. Whatever else we are, whoever we are, we're old. It changes you in ways you can't prepare for. If you say yes, you won't know what you're getting into. You can't.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry sagged back in his chair, dazed. Staying. Living with Uma. Hell, living at all. But going back… “So even just ten years here would be, what, nearly three hundred working?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal laughed hoarsely. “You'd think so, wouldn't you? But no. We're old, and we're powerful. Time is different for us, especially the core, but it's still here. It's more powerful than we could ever dream of being. Everything bows down to time in the end. You can't steal from it and expect it to behave nicely in response. One in twenty-nine is the gift it gives us. When we get greedy, so does time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes flickered when she looked at him, blue and green light appearing and disappearing as quickly as they came. “Twenty-nine and twenty-nine again. A year alive is almost nine hundred dead. Ask Carlos if you ever want the exact measurements; he has it down to a second. But you need to know that a decade on earth is nearly ten thousand years working. Imagine that. Imagine a life with her, swallowed by an eternity spent watching people die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry imagined it. Forty years with Uma. Fifty, sixty. Thousands upon thousands of years caught in the unending end. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will I even remember her?” he asked softly, heart splintering in his chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal shook her head. The cracks grew wider. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For a while, maybe. Centuries. Millennia, even. But eventually, no.” She sighed. “Did you know that Mal isn't my name? Not my first name, at least. I don't know what it was. You won't remember yourself, let alone her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How old are you?” Harry asked, voice so quiet he could barely hear himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal's mouth made the shape of a smile. “I don't know my own name anymore. Why would I keep track of something like that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Were they with you?” Harry asked. “The core.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Always,” Mal murmured. “The only reason any of us are here is because we're here together. We've lost ourselves and found each other so many times. The four of us…” She hesitated, then shook her head. “It doesn't matter. But you'd be one of us, if you stay,” she said. “Not a part of the core. That's not possible, no matter how long anyone stays. Even Ben isn't. But you'd be different from the others. No one stays for as long as you would,” she explained. “They'll stay for hundreds of years. Thousands, even. But people get tired.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked conflicted for a moment, then sat down across from him, expression more serious than he had ever seen on her. “You won't. Well, no, you will, but you'll get over it. You have no idea how this will change you. We'll help. We'll keep you together as much as we can. But </span>
  <em>
    <span>you will break.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal looked nearly panicked now, frantic to make him understand. “There will be </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing </span>
  </em>
  <span>left of you. The person you are, the person you were, the things you care about, the, the fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>music</span>
  </em>
  <span> you like. It all goes away. You won't notice it going. But you'll look up one day and realize it's been centuries since you gave a shit about the people you're guiding.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry swallowed. “Why do you do it, then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For the first time since he'd known her, Mal looked her age, eyes dull and tired, all-knowing and hating that knowledge. “We can't do anything different. I told you, Harry. We're old. Think how long we've done this. What eternity is waiting for us? What ending could we come up with after this long?” She sighed, resting her elbows on the table and dropping her head into her hands. “Do you know what I expect to happen when I die? I expect to come back here and keep doing this. I can't imagine anything else. Nothing else would make sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook her head, finally looking back up at him. “That's probably what'll happen to you. You won't be able to even think of anything else, let alone expect it. You trade a lifetime with her for an eternity with us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I'd still get that lifetime.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal, to his surprise, burst out laughing. A little hoarse, a little hysterical, but a laugh nonetheless. “You're an idiot. Yeah, you would. A few seconds of happiness, then it's gone forever. Nothing and nobody is worth that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is, then?” Harry asked. “Why would you stay on earth, if it's such a bad idea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal rolled her eyes. “Because I didn't have anyone to tell me what a bad idea it was, the first time. After that, well.” She shrugged. “I told you. You can't think of anything else. I died, Evie came to get me, and I went back to work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to stay,” Harry said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really, really don't,” Mal said. “But I have literally no way to make you understand that. Take my advice, don't take it, why do I even bother?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made to stand up, but Harry caught her wrist. “Hey. I do appreciate it. The offer, and the advice. But what if there's a loophole?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal's expression went carefully blank. “A loophole.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Harry said. “You said you and the core are still, you know, yourselves, because you have each other.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don't finish that thought,” Mal said warningly, but Harry continued eagerly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If Uma and I, one day–”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Don't.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“After she dies, she could just–”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mal wrenched her hand away from his so she could slam her palms down on the table. The fire was back in her eyes, and when she spoke he could hear Carlos, Evie, and Jay in her voice, all layered together into one. The room felt suddenly full of crackling, uncontainable energy as every piece of the world came to painful life. Somewhere behind the bar, Harry heard glass shattering. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“What is the first rule?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Mal shouted, face twisting into something familiar and unrecognizable. Harry froze, staring at the four of them pulled together into one body. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is the first rule, Harry?” the core repeated. “What did I tell you when Ben dragged you away from hell? </span>
  <em>
    <span>What did I say to you?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“No...” His voice faded, throat suddenly dry. He swallowed and forced himself to say, “No leading questions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are powerful,” the core hissed. “You can change people's eternities. The living fear death, but they trust it. If a woman dresses you as an angel and you tell her she's going to hell, she will </span>
  <em>
    <span>believe</span>
  </em>
  <span> you. She will walk into the fire, because you tell her what to expect. If you tell a man there's nothing waiting for him, his heaven will dissolve into darkness, because </span>
  <em>
    <span>you tell him what to expect.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The four of them look disgusted. Harry shrank back in his seat as they stood up, both hands pressed to the table as they bent over it and bared their teeth. “You would consign the woman you love to a parade of death? You would trap her with you, out of your own selfishness and fear?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Harry whispered, trembling. He knew the core was powerful, he knew they were something else, but– “No, I wouldn't, I swear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos melted out of her first, then Jay, then Evie. The uncontrolled life in the bar, inanimate objects suddenly forced into wakefulness, slowly faded to a faint buzz, then disappeared all together. Harry's ears rang in the sudden silence. It was just him and Mal, two half-dead things, surrounded by silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn't comforting to see just her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will let you stay,” Mal said. He wasn't sure if she was whispering, or if her voice only sounded so quiet compared to the core. “Hell, I'll support your decision no matter what you choose, and I'll do my best to take care of you.” She leaned closer, small form at odds with the unquestionable force behind her words. “But if you so much as breathe a word of this to Uma, if you try to trick her into your eternity with you, I will kill you myself and rip your soul to shreds. I love you, Harry, but your wants do not give you the right to abuse your power. Your desires do not outweigh the rules of the world. If you don't remember your place, I will be forced to remind you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She straightened then, rolling her neck with a loud crack. “Sorry about the bottles back there,” she said. “I'll pay you back for them, whatever they were. I don't think anything else broke, but let me know if it did and I'll write you a check. Or, I don't know, Venmo. Just text me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry stared at her, slowly uncurling to sit upright. Mal looked half amused, half chagrined. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what we are,” she said gently, not quite an apology, but something of an explanation. “I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want you to hurt her. Your vacation is over in two weeks. Let me know your decision before then, and we'll work out the details.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She waited for him to nod, dazed, then stepped through an invisible door and disappeared. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Harry wasn't sure how long he sat there, staring blindly at the place Mal had been standing. Eventually, he got up and went to look for a broom. There was glass on the floor. </span>
</p>
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